We really haven't had much information on this. We know canned pet food in gravy can be tainted and dangerous. We don't really know the specific kinds--I feed Friskies and Meow Mix. Friskies is made by Purina, but I have not heard whether it is possibly effected.

My indoor cats get strictly dry food, and I hear some of that has been effected by salmonella. No word about which ones have been effected.

To top it off, the last person to get groceries for me got ALL the canned food 'in gravy'.

I am afraid to feed my own cats. I have given them canned people food--tuna, chicken, sardines, mixed with cooked rice. Leaves me short, but I can have dry milk as protein.

Anyone care to join me for lunch? We are having bread sandwiches with dried milk. YooooooMIE!

We really haven't had much information on this. We know canned pet food in gravy can be tainted and dangerous. We don't really know the specific kinds--I feed Friskies and Meow Mix. Friskies is made by Purina, but I have not heard whether it is possibly effected.

My indoor cats get strictly dry food, and I hear some of that has been effected by salmonella. No word about which ones have been effected.

To top it off, the last person to get groceries for me got ALL the canned food 'in gravy'.

I am afraid to feed my own cats. I have given them canned people food--tuna, chicken, sardines, mixed with cooked rice. Leaves me short, but I can have dry milk as protein.

Anyone care to join me for lunch? We are having bread sandwiches with dried milk. YooooooMIE!

dori, you must be one of the best people on earth.

We split one can of wet food between the four of them once a day. It's more of a treat than anything. But we have always used 9 Lives or Friskies. I am so happy that those brands were not affected.

Thank you shoeless and Catherine for your kind words, but we all love our pets and would do anything for them.

I am going to have to pour over those web sites. I will bookmark them and go over them carefully. My cats don't like egg so that isn't a problem. They love fish, any kind of fish. Does anyone know why cats love fish? It doesn't seem to be a natural food for them does it?

And milk products! They would attack for anything like cheese or plain milk. But cats sometimes do not have the ability to digest lactose so I go easy on such treats.

Shoeless, my indoor cats would be in seventh heaven if they had that nice green 'bouquet' your Livvy is admiring. I got them a small container of oat grass and it ended up all over the kitchen. I didn't know cats could find so many places to decorate. The actual oat seeds were lying at the bottom of their water dish--do you suppose they have a bit of farmer in them? Or maybe they are related to squirrels?

I can honestly tell you that you're not the first to suggest a mouse flavor cat food. And cats definitely do appear to be drawn to mice, although I'm not certain if it's due to their flavor or the fact that they move.

Cats are avid hunters. In fact, the predatory instinct is so strong in cats that they will stop eating, in order to chase their prey. Contrary to what their owners might think, the predatory instinct is not driven by hunger. Cats will hunt, even when they are well fed. The fact that a mouse moves quickly, darting in irregular patterns quite quickly draws the cat's attention. Cats normally eat approximately 20 small meals per day; this hunting behavior allows them to have plenty of food available whenever they are ready to eat.

While cats may have a preference for mice, consumer research indicates that the idea of a "mouse flavor" cat food is not appealing to very many cat owners. From a practical standpoint, keep in mind that we manufacture many tons of cat food each year. As mice are not generally processed for consumption, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a supplier for an ingredient of this type.

I was "hulling" some strawberries one day last week and Charlie, the huge coal-black fellow that is my "familiar" went bonkers!

He jumped up on the counter, which he knows he's not allowed to do, and started to push his nose into the pile of strawberry hulls that were next to the sink. He behaved as though they were catnip.

I quickly washed the hulls and put them onto a paper towel, set them on the floor, and Charlie made a beeline for them. He rolled on them, sniffed them, and finally ate most of them. I was amazed, as he and the other three cats can go outside anytime they wish through their catdoor and there's a huge bed of catnip, just now high enough for them to roll around in and enjoy.

Any idea why Charlie acted like this over strawberry hulls? The other cats didn't acknowledge them at all.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

One of the sites you posted Catherine, said cats sometimes like fruit. In fact, my Casper used to share muskmellon rinds with my ex's dog. When Ziggie had to be put down, Casper never looked at a muskmellon rind again. I guess he was just being a good companion, eh?

I would buy mouse flavored cat food in a second! IF they would eat it, that is.

Shoeless, those 'greens' sure look real. But that does explain why they look so good with cats around. I haven't been able to have a plant in the house since these cats showed up here. AND, just learned this year lillies are deadly poisonous to cats.

Cats systems are amazingly delicate.

I keep my cats in because 1) I don't want three more cats out there catching birds, 2) I don't want them exposed to diseases and 3) I don't want them to get tape worms. Eating mice is one way they get them.

(Hmm, how could they make mouse flavored cat food and make sure there is no chance of cats getting tape worm from it?)

And, it is time to start their flea regime, fleas and mice are the tape worm instigators.

Oh yes...and I've been the recipient of I don't know how many "gifts" brought through the cat door, a few of them still alive. I had to spend an hour chasing down a mole the other day. Charlie brought it in for my inspection, and quickly lost interest in it. When the mole decided it was safe to move again, it ran under the bookshelf, and I had visions of having to take all the books out, pull out the bookshelf, and find a fragrantly ripe mole behind it.

Fortunately, I was finally able to catch the mole in a quart jar and I released it outside.

Charlie slept through the whole fiasco....

(This isn't Charlie, but it's his twin, right down to the few white hairs on his chest.)

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Then your Charlie looks exactly like my U. Yup, right down to the few white hairs on the chest.

Yes, I have had to chase down 'gifts' that were dropped by the door when I go out to feed the outside cats. Not much fun.

The biggest job though, is trying to save birds. I have an empty cage in here for any I can manage to get away from a cat. They get to rest after the ordeal and I let them go far away from where the cats are, but still close to the house. They may have a family out there somewhere.

The FDA has no evidence that contaminated wheat gluten has entered the U.S. human food supply, but has "asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to use its surveillance network to monitor for signs of human illness, such as increased renal failure, that could indicate contamination of the human food supply," as Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine, told a Senate subcommittee on April 12. So far, no human illnesses have been linked to the melamine-tainted wheat gluten.

WASHINGTON - An industrial chemical that led to a nationwide recall of more than 100 brands of cat and dog foods has been found to contaminate a second pet food ingredient, expanding the recall further.

The chemical, melamine, is believed to have contaminated rice protein concentrate used to make a variety of Natural Balance Pet Foods products for both dogs and cats, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Previously, the chemical was found to contaminate another ingredient, wheat gluten, used by at least six other pet food and treat manufacturers.

Natural Balance said it was recalling all its Venison and Brown Rice canned and bagged dog foods, its Venison and Brown Rice dog treats and its Venison and Green Pea dry cat food.

The Pacoima, Calif., company said recent laboratory tests showed the products contain melamine. It believes the source of the contaminant was rice protein concentrate, which the company recently added to the dry venison formulas. Natural Balance does not use wheat gluten, which was associated with the previous melamine contamination, it said.

Feed sellers in China routinely use protein substituteBy David Barboza and Alexei BarrionuevoSunday, April 29, 2007

ZHANGQIU, China: American food safety regulators trying to figure out how an industrial chemical called melamine contaminated so much pet food in the United States might come to this heavily polluted city in Shandong Province in the northern part of the country.

Here at the Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group factory, huge boiler vats are turning coal into melamine, which is used to create plastics and fertilizer.

But the leftover melamine scrap, small acorn-sized chunks of white rock, is then being sold to local entrepreneurs, who say they secretly mix a powdered form of the scrap into animal feed to artificially enhance the protein level.

The melamine powder has been dubbed "fake protein" and is used to deceive those who raise animals into thinking they are buying feed that provides higher nutrition value.

"It just saves money," says a manager at an animal feed factory here. "Melamine scrap is added to animal feed to boost the protein level."

The practice is widespread in China. For years animal feed sellers have been able to cheat buyers by blending the powder into feed with little regulatory supervision, according to interviews with melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.